For many ages textbooks and physicians dealt scantily with infection in the upper part of the respiratory tract. Writers of textbooks invariably relegated it to a minor place. Most books on medicine began with another subject, as typhoid or perhaps pneumonia. Today this is quite changed. Infection of the upper part of the respiratory tract, its serious attending sequelae and its accompanying bodily reactions probably are dwelt on more adequately and investigated more attentively than at any time since the dawn of modern medicine. The problem is not new; it has been discussed and written about in many ages and many climes. Long before modern medicine was evolved it was present. Herodotus1 said concerning the Egyptians in 425 B. C., "physicians swarmed all over Egypt and treated every disease as a local disorder," and "some," he said, "treated diseases of the eye and head only." He further stated that the